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This school wants its students to question why so many words end in 'man.'

If the English language were a person, it would be this guy.

Photo by Jessica/Flickr.


A sweating, hulking lumberjack wielding an enormous saw, which is, stereotypically, the very essence of all that is manly.

Of course, women can be lumberjacks, too. But the English language — at least, the way it was taught to many of us — doesn't have room for that kind of nuance.

Don't believe me? Here's a picture of a couple of "policemen":

Photo by Jay Weenig/Flickr.

And here's one of a hardworking "fireman":

Photo by William Franklin/Flickr.

Matter of fact, what comes to mind when you think about a "freshman" in college? Or things that are "man-made?" What do you picture when you think about the history of "mankind"?

Starting to see a trend here?

For years, we've been taught that male-centric language is OK. The folks over at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill decided to teach their students differently.

Photo by William Yeung/Flickr.

I know for a fact that I'm guilty of this. Though I can't pinpoint exactly when, somewhere along the line I started assuming readers would know what I meant when I wrote "policeman." That they'd know I was referring to everyone on the planet when I said "mankind." That "Hey, guys!" was a perfectly acceptable substitute for "Hey, everyone!"

The truth is that defaulting to the male version of a word or phrase is lazy and uncool.

That's why UNC Chapel Hill is challenging its students to think more carefully about gender in their writing.

In a new addition to the school's writing guide, students can find guidelines that will help them "make decisions about using gendered language" in their writing.

According to the guide, "Most readers no longer understand the word 'man' to be synonymous with 'person,' so clear communication requires writers to be more precise."

It then goes on to give lots of helpful tips for students to use in their writing. They're not issuing mandates; they're providing guidelines.

For starters, there's a nifty chart that gives students gender-neutral alternatives to certain problematic words. "Mailman," for example, becomes "mail carrier." "Freshman" becomes "first-year student."

The guide also discusses topics like when and when not to invoke gender at all in academic writing and how to make sure the content of your writing is fair. (Referring to William Shakespeare as "Shakespeare," and Jane Austen as "Jane"? It happens, and it's pretty sexist.)

And, possibly, my personal favorite recommendation is the use of "they" as a singular pronoun, which is long, long overdue and, according to the guide, is a good alternative because "using 'she or he' or similar constructions can also inadvertently exclude people who do not refer to themselves using either pronoun." (Relax, grammar enthusiasts; the world isn't going to implode.)

Some are up in arms about these new guidelines, though, declaring them a "War on Words," and the work of "the P.C. Police."

Image from "Fox and Friends Weekend."

And this isn't the first time a campus initiative like this has gotten significant blowback.

Earlier this year, the University of Tennessee Knoxville had a post on its website encouraging students and teachers to ask each other which pronouns they preferred and to consider using gender-neutral pronouns like "ze" or "xe." After huge amounts of criticism, in which the policy was referred to as "liberal propaganda," the post came down a few weeks later.

UNC Chapel Hill already looks like it's headed for the same kind of opposition.

But really, when you boil it down, UNC isn't asking much. It's simply asking students to say what they mean and to stop assuming people like police officers and congressional representatives are men.

If you ask me, that's not propaganda, it's an important lesson for our next generation of leaders.

A Korean mother and her son

A recently posted story on Reddit shows a mother confidently standing up for her family after being bullied by a teacher for her culture. Reddit user Flowergardens0 posted the story to the AITA forum, where people ask whether they are wrong in a specific situation.

Over 5,600 people commented on the story, and an overwhelming majority thought the mother was right. Here’s what went down:

“I (34F) have a (5M) son who attends preschool. A few hours after I picked him up from school today, I got a phone call from his teacher,” Flowergardens0 wrote. “She made absolutely no effort to sound kind when she, in an extremely rude and annoyed tone, told me to stop packing my son such ‘disgusting and inappropriate’ lunches."

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Ring doorbell video captures what it's like to be the default parent.

Kids, man. I'm not sure of the scientific way audacity is distributed, but kids have a lot of it and somehow make it cute. That audacity overload is especially interesting when you're the default parent—you know, the parent kids go to for literally everything as if there's not another fully capable adult in the house. Chances are if your children haven't sought you out while you were taking a shower so you could open up a pack of fruit snacks, then you're not the default parental unit.

One parent captured exactly what it's like to be the default parent and shared it to TikTok, where the video has over 4 million views. Toniann Marchese went on a quick grocery run and *gasp* did not inform her children. Don't you fret, they're modern kids who know how to use modern means to get much-needed answers when mom is nowhere to be found. They went outside and rang the doorbell.

Back when we were children, this would've done nothing but make the dogs bark, but for Marchese's kids, who are 3 and 6 years old, it's as good as a phone call.

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Woman was mocked online for calling an $80 purse a 'luxury item.' Her response went viral.

"I'm so grateful that my dad was able to get me one. He worked so hard for that money.”

@zohtaco/TikTok

Zoe Gabriel, showing off her new purse from Charles & Keith

Insults of any kind are painful, but jabs towards someone’s financial status are their own breed.

In January 2023, Singapore-based Zoe Gabriel was on the receiving end of this particular flavor of mockery when she posted a TikTok about a purse from local retail brand Charles & Keith—a gift bought for her by her father.

In her excitement, the 17-year-old called the bag, which costs around $80, a “luxury” item as she unwrapped it. Her excitement was sadly cut short by some of the negative comments she received.

One comment seemed to stand out above the rest and prompted Gabriel to post an emotional response video.

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'American Idol' contestant has perfect response to Katy Perry's 'mom-shaming' joke

The 25-year-old used the moment to stand up for moms everywhere.

@sarabethliebe/TikTok

"Keep loving your babies."

You might recall us singing the praises of Sara Beth, the exuberant young mom with major vocal chops dubbed the “Accidental American Idol.”

During Sara Beth’s initial audition for the show, judge Katy Perry made a joke that rubbed many viewers the wrong way.

Before Sara Beth even began to sing, the 25-year-old revealed that she had three children, which prompted Katy Perry to dramatically stand up from her seat and feign shock. When Sara Beth, all smiles, said, “If Katy lays on the table, I think I’m going to pass out,” Perry retorted, “Honey, you’ve been laying on the table too much.”

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YouTube creator Steve Mould shows us what echo looks like through an acoustic camera.

It’s bizarre to think about seeing sound, but nowadays we can do just that. If you haven’t seen an acoustic camera before, that’s because they’re mainly used for industrial purposes, but they’ve been available commercially from gfai tech since 2001.

YouTuber Steve Mould, who has a science channel with over 2.1 million subscribers, took the complicated concept of the acoustic camera and made it easy to understand in his latest video, “Acoustic cameras can SEE sound.”

In the video, Mould explains how an acoustic camera is much like your smartphone's video recorder. But it also creates visual representations of sound emanating from where it’s generated within the video.

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Dad gives his young daughter a 'spa day' while mom and sister are out and people are gushing

"This healed a part of me. Thank you for doing this with your daughter."

Mason Smith pampered his baby girl during her "spa day."

Raising kids is no small feat. Just the basic logistics of caring for a human being from their helpless newborn stage to the full-fledged adult stage is a lot, much less doing the countless other things that will actually help that human thrive.

Parents who go above and beyond to create a nurturing environment and build strong core memories with their kids are inspiring examples for us all, and one dad's spa day with his daughter has people positively gushing.

Mason Smith (@thedadsocial) shared a video of a special spa day he gave his young daughter when her mom and older sister were having their own pampered outing. "Mom and sister went to the salon so I couldn't have her feeling left out," he wrote.

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